A dual-band CMOS power amplifier at 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz for LTE applications

Abstract

This paper presents a dual-band power amplifier (PA) for LTE applications at 1.8 GHz and 2.6GHz in TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The proposed PA consists of a two-stage cascode structure comprising a driver stage and power stage. The driver stage employs a RC feedback and resistive feedback. The feedback technique is used to improve the bandwidth. The power stage employs a diode linearizer help to enhance linearity. The simulation results indicated that the PA exhibited an average power gain of 21 dB, an input return loss (S11) less than -18 dB, the output power is about 24.8/23 dBm, and power added efficiency (PAE) is about 35/33 % at 1.8/2.6 GHz. The power consumption is 211 mW at an operation voltage of 3.3V.